Pacific Western Design is producing an electric wiper system for 1948 and 1952 F-1 trucks
photo courtesy Pacific Western Design

You get it, right? Maybe you, too, have put up with the ignominy of digging through boxes at swap meets, hoping you’ll get lucky enough to find a salvageable wiper motor for your early Ford F-1. If you’re lucky, the vacuum motor will allow the wipers to move more rapidly than the sweep-second hand on your wristwatch.

Grind your teeth no more. Pacific Western Design is producing a new, fully electric and mechanical wiper system for F-1 trucks built between 1948 and 1952. Dubbed Raingear, it mates a 12-volt electric motor to an equally contemporary lever-and-link operating mechanism. The F-1 Raingear kit installs beneath the dashboard, incorporating either a two-speed wiper and washer switch or, if you wish, an intermittent switch.

Official pricing is still unannounced, but the firm’s kit for a General Motors Advance Design truck from the same era runs around $375. For more info, call 360-385-5493, or visit www.pacificwesterndesign.com.

(This post originally appeared in the October 18, 2007, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)